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Verse 32. I have compassion on the multitude]
My bowels yearn towards them. Neither is he 〈◊〉〈◊〉 loving now that he is in heaven, towards his poor pennilesse 〈◊〉〈◊〉 people on earth: but when they are hardest put to't, and haply have not a crosse to blesse themselves with, as the proverb is, he so graciously provides, that though the young lions (or the strong ones, as the Septuagint* 1.1 have it) doe lack and suffer hunger, yet they that seek the Lord want nothing that's good for them. Aaron though he might not bewail the death of his two sons, Lev. 10. because he was High-priest, yet his bowels of fatherly affection towards them, could not be restrained. Christ retaineth still compassion, Heb. 45.* 1.2 though free from personall passion: and, though freed from feeling,* 1.3 hath 〈◊〉〈◊〉 yet a fellow-feeling. Manet compassio etiam cum impas∣sibilitate, saith Bernard.
The Lord takes punctuall and particular notice of all circumstances, how far they came, how long they had been there, how little able they were to hold out fasting to their own homes, &c. And so he doth still, recount how many years, daies, hours we have spent with him: what straits, 〈◊〉〈◊〉, hears, colds, dangers, difficulties we have 〈◊〉〈◊〉 with and passed thorow; all is exactly registred in his book of remembrance: I know thy work, and thy 〈◊〉〈◊〉, saith he,* 1.4 Rev. 2. Men take much pains many times, and none regard it, re∣ward it. But Christ takes notice, not of his peoples works only, but of their labour in doing them, that he may 〈◊〉〈◊〉 recompence their labour of love, their losse of goods, &c. the godly shall know in themselves, not only in others, in books &c. that they have a better, and an enduring substance, Heb. 10. 34.